So Patch 1.1 really isn't as terrible as I might have depicted. But what it is doing is forcing Protoss(not so much Terrans) to alter their game plan in order to continue their journey to universal domination. One theory floating around right now is that Cannon Rushes, VR Rushes, and Cannon Contains are going to be more popular than they were before. Yay.
Today I'm going to be reviewing one of my recent games where my opponent went Void Rays and how I dealt with it. Was it pretty? No. Did I do everything perfectly? Never. Do I see places where I can improve? Yes. And that's really the most important thing. So if you're interested, take a gander at my replay here.
What I Did Right
Scout the Forge
Since we all know Zerg are much better as a reactive race, scouting is always important and most of the time key to victory. Spotting a Forge-based opening is quite easy, considering you're simply looking for an early Forge. In this case, it was the first post-pylon building he built. Probably afraid of the big, bad Zergling Rush(tm).
As soon as you see that forge, several possibilities should pop into your head. They usually come in the following order:
- Oh, he's got a Forge. Probably going to Cannon rush me or something.
- Wait, a Forge?! Cannon Rush?!?! OMG OMG! *begins to sob uncontrollably*
- *wipes his eyes* Oh.. I can beat that. I just need to go find his pylon.
Then, if you don't find any lonely-looking Pylons or Probes hanging around your ramp or the edges of your main, more thoughts should come slurping into your gelatinous brain organ.
- Hrm.. no cannons here.. maybe he built the Forge by mistake. Protoss are always misclicking like that.
- Wait.. didn't I read on The Little Zergling something about Void Rays..
- OMG Void Rays!?! OMG OMG OMG! *passes out*
- *wakes up* Oh.. I can beat that. I just need to haul ass to either Hydras or Mutas.
See? Scouting is easy! This should all only take a few seconds, unless you actually cry and pass out, then perhaps you should go find something a bit more your speed.. like knitting.
Fast Tech to Lair & Expand
One of the key things to note about someone who's building a Forge first is that he's not going to be attacking you. He'll be powering his way to Stargates and will usually be leaving you alone to do your thing, since Zerg aren't usually dangerous if you just leave them alone.. right? Muahahaha! Release the Overlords of Doom!
Seriously though, once you know your opponent is rushing to Void Rays, you are safe to expand. In my case, I chose my back expansion. The neat thing about this is that you're really just expanding for more gas, so you don't even need to destroy the rocks sitting in the way(really speeds up your hatch time). By 3:25, my hatch was started and by 6:00 my Lair was done and my Spire started.
Continue to Scout & Harass
Nothing irks people trying to do something fast than having other people distract or delay them. So, continue to scout his base to see where he's at in terms of buildings, progress on his Stargates, etc. Also be sure to check the rest of the map for sneaky expos that Protoss like to hide sometimes.
Because I started my Spire before his Stargates, we finished pretty much at the same time. The unfortunate thing is that building a Spire is like making love to a beautiful woman.. no, wait, no it's not. Building a Spire is like planting a maple seed because you want a tree fort by this afternoon. Spires take 100 seconds to build vs Stargates at 60s, so it needs to be started proactively.
On the bright side, Mutalisks are speedy to make(33s) compared to Phoenixes(45s) or Void Rays(60s) and we can make them all at the same time. They're also cheaper(100m/100g) vs Phoenixes(150m/100g) or Void Rays(250m/150g). What I'm saying is the lynch pin to holding back Protoss air is anticipating it and responding accordingly.
At this point, it's a race between you and the Protoss to see who gets more first. You do not want Void Rays to reach critical mass(something like 9 VRs is all but unstoppable without other units as backup, which you don't have) and to prevent this, I send in my Mutas at around 4-5 to savage their workers and pick off a VR or two to slow them down.
As soon as I hit 12 mutalisks, there's really nothing he can do to stop me from winning.
Now...
Things I Did Wrong
I'm Afraid of Giant Brain Balloons!
After making my first few Mutas, I supply blocked myself at 44. I got too caught up in what I was doing and didn't watch my numbers. Oh well, next time I'll keep a better eye on them and build more Overlords in advance.
Expand!
I definitely could have expanded once my Mutas were in the air, especially considering I was supply blocked and couldn't spend the money on units anyways. This would have given me a better foundation in case he ended up beating me back.
Chrono-what?
I noticed near the end, he had 90+ energy in his main building(like I know what it is). He could have been Chrono-boosting his Void Rays more, though I'm not sure it would have been enough, but maybe.
Anyone think this could have been dealt with differently? I suppose I could have Zergling/Roach rushed him, but those cannons are mean and would have given him time to switch plays or make enough other units/cannons to hold me off until his VRs were ready. Any of my Protoss readers want to point out things he did wrong, since I have absolutely no games played as Protoss and apparently can't even remember the name of their main building. Let me know what I missed!
On the bright side, Mutalisks are speedy to make(33s) compared to Phoenixes(45s) or Void Rays(60s) and we can make them all at the same time. They're also cheaper(100m/100g) vs Phoenixes(150m/100g) or Void Rays(250m/150g). What I'm saying is the lynch pin to holding back Protoss air is anticipating it and responding accordingly.
At this point, it's a race between you and the Protoss to see who gets more first. You do not want Void Rays to reach critical mass(something like 9 VRs is all but unstoppable without other units as backup, which you don't have) and to prevent this, I send in my Mutas at around 4-5 to savage their workers and pick off a VR or two to slow them down.
As soon as I hit 12 mutalisks, there's really nothing he can do to stop me from winning.
Now...
Things I Did Wrong
I'm Afraid of Giant Brain Balloons!
After making my first few Mutas, I supply blocked myself at 44. I got too caught up in what I was doing and didn't watch my numbers. Oh well, next time I'll keep a better eye on them and build more Overlords in advance.
Expand!
I definitely could have expanded once my Mutas were in the air, especially considering I was supply blocked and couldn't spend the money on units anyways. This would have given me a better foundation in case he ended up beating me back.
Chrono-what?
I noticed near the end, he had 90+ energy in his main building(like I know what it is). He could have been Chrono-boosting his Void Rays more, though I'm not sure it would have been enough, but maybe.
Anyone think this could have been dealt with differently? I suppose I could have Zergling/Roach rushed him, but those cannons are mean and would have given him time to switch plays or make enough other units/cannons to hold me off until his VRs were ready. Any of my Protoss readers want to point out things he did wrong, since I have absolutely no games played as Protoss and apparently can't even remember the name of their main building. Let me know what I missed!
Rushing him to try to take him down before he gets those VR is incredibly risky and expensive. Back in Silver when i was doing VR against Zerg every single time, the one time i was pushed back with them, was when my opponent went Hydras. If creep is spread very well they can bounce around very fast. It also important to remember, that on 1 base, a Protss player can barely produce VR from 2 stargates, there is sometimes a gap between 1 coming out and another one starting to be warped in. and he cant produce 2 at the same time without sacrificing his entire economy to do so.
ReplyDeleteForges are iffy. I never used them, instead going for a gateway core wall off and getting a stalker to take down that overlord so he wouldnt see those stargates going down.
Another VR rush that was used against me, which was clever, was he fooled me into going nothing but stalkers and had 4 warpages AND a stargate proxy'd near my base to get 2 VR's out, whils still producing ground units to distract me.
Its all about scouting with those builds. if you dont knwo which direction hes going, its hard to effectively follow him.
So since he was on 1 base, he was pretty much counting on the initial 2-3 VRs to kill me off? I didn't think he'd be that strapped to produce VRs off 1 base. At least I know now. :)
ReplyDeleteHydras were the other way I was going to go, but I've gotten into the habit of defaulting to Mutas just because of their natural mobility. That might come back to bite me later, so I'm trying to work on my Hydra play when I remember it.
i always prefer to go hydra when i spot potential VR, tbh i usually try to go hydras against P. obviously the problem with hydras is the lack of mobility compared to mutas, so you need to be really bang on the creep spreading. But one plus with mass hydras is they they are cheaper then mutas, which means you have more room for upgrades, which also benefit roaches, and a large roach/hydra push can cause severe problems for a protoss player.
ReplyDelete3 hatch on 2 bases churning out the hydras and roaches imo is > then a 2 base toss going mass VR, just make sure you're making more hydras then roaches. you want just enough roaches to keep any zealots busy while your hydras snipe the VRs out the sky.
keep up the good work for the swarm!!
@Sean: That sounds like a fairly solid strategy, especially the fact that both units share upgrades.
ReplyDeleteI've never been all that enthused about 3 hatch/2 base, but I don't have much experience with it. How does it affect your economy? Wouldn't you end up making more larvae than you could afford to use?
The third hatch is actually the most efficient way of spending the income off of 2 bases, once both bases are fully saturated (2.5 drones per mineral patch and 3 per gas), slap down the third hatch and you will be able to constantly churn out units. i read it on a post somewhere on the net about the hatch:base ratio. just the sheer rate at which you will be able to reinforce or recreate youre whole army will be a real scary sight.
ReplyDelete